Owl Treats

I will confess, to you few dear readers, of a shameful period in my past. A dark time, when I… was a devoted fan …of Harry Potter.

Yeah, I know, old news, me and six billion other people, except the ones who think it’s a work of Satan, and Harold Bloom, but he only likes litra-chur, we hear. Anyway, I was all into it for a while and I pretty much overdid it, and by the time the last book came out all I could think was Thank god, I can find out how it ends and move on. (For the record, I quite enjoyed the last book, but the epilogue I shall pretend I didn’t see.)

As a consequence to that overdoing, I generally avoid all the Potter-branded media that has been flooding the market for years now. I kept the few interesting things, and my books, and that was that. So I wasn’t terribly excited when Opal came out with Harry Potter themed sock yarn. Especially not when the colors were released. (Attn Opal designers: In what universe does Remus Lupin wear pink? Seriously.) I looked them all over, shrugged, moved on.

And then I got a second look at the Hedwig colorway.

HEDWIG SOCKS

Pattern: Basic Stockinette Sock with heel flap
Yarn: Opal Harry Potter sock yarn in Hedwig
Needles: US1/2.25mm bamboos
Notes: Teehee. These turned out lovely, didn’t they? So well, that I am actually considering getting more of this yarn (the Ron colorway, perhaps?) because having a good mindless stockinette project is one of the best stress relievers I can think of.
I simply cast on 62 stitches, did some ribbing, and then just went to town. I know everybody goes on about short-row heels to “maintain the integrity of the stripe pattern” or some such, but honestly? I wasn’t that invested in the stripe pattern, and I much prefer how a flap heel fits. So I did one of those, and I’m quite happy with the results.

I really love the colors in this: varying shades of grey, nothing flashy, nothing complicated. Unlike some of the colorways in this line, which left me wondering what they were thinking, these socks absolutely evoke a sense of Hedwig the Snowy Owl.

As you might have guessed, I’m generally in the fraternal school of sock striping — you can see where the colorways meet up, and on one sock it’s the toe and on one it’s the center of the foot, and that’s…just fine with me.

Having a nice easy project was magnificent, since in the little bit I’ve also been test knitting these:

This would be Glenna C’s marvelous Viper Pilots pattern. Continuing that fine melding of genre fiction and yarn, Glenna designed a pattern inspired by the viper pilots from Battlestar Galactica, which airs its final episode, uh, Friday. It’s all twisted stitches and cables and insanity, and all of those things are entirely appropriate for the theme. I’m into my second sock now and loving every second of it. Go buy it, knit it, tell your friends, tell the whole Colonial Fleet!